Clamping devices of this kind are used, for example, wherever the welding together of the girders is impossible or the girders must be connected in releasable fashion so that they can be reused. In principle, these girders can have any shape, such as a U-shaped, T-shaped or I-shaped cross-section. These profiles frequently have flanges with inclined surfaces, particularly on the inside surfaces. If the clamping device rests against inclined girder flanges, or inclined bearing surfaces of structural components that help connect the girders to one another, the clamping device and the girder or structural component can shift relative to one another when a clamping force or tension force is applied due to the non-parallel bearing surfaces.
In one solution to this problem, the tension element of the clamping device can be provided with an inclined surface as the bearing surface, running in the direction opposite to the inclined surface of the flange or structural component, in order to ensure parallel contact of the bearing surface of the tension element on the bearing surface of the girder or structural component. Consequently, a corresponding clamping device has to be provided for every specific bearing surface.
In another solution according to the prior art, an additional structural component is positioned between the inclined surface of the girder or structural component and the bearing surface of the tension element. For example, German patent application P 22 45 862 discloses a clamp connection for profile rails with an I-shaped or U-shaped profile with webs of different width, in which an abutting block with an inclined surface in the opposite direction is inserted between the inclined inside surface of the web of a U-rail and a clamping plate, in order to prevent the shifting of the clamping plate on the U-leg when tightening the clamp connection, this being made possible by the inclination of the U-leg. The use of such an abutting block to compensate for non-parallel bearing surfaces requires at least one additional working step when mounting these clamping devices. Moreover, there is a risk of losing the comparatively small, additional component.
Consequently, the object of the invention is to provide a clamping device which at least partially eliminates the disadvantages of the conventional clamping devices described above and, in particular, can be used with structural components and girders with different dimensions or inclinations.
The invention already solves this object with a clamping device having the characteristics described in claim 1 for the releasable connection of structural components to girders or of girders to one another.